Ocean City:: Volume I

By Ph.D., Nan DeVincent-Hayes and John E. Jacob

Originally the land of the Algonquian people, the barrier island on which Ocean City is now located, served as a protective wall for the mainland Delmarva peninsula. It was a somewhat remote area until five men, having formed the Atlantic Hotel Company Corporation, built the first lodging facility, and Ocean City as a coastal resort began to take root. From the cattle grazing in the mid-1800s to the few blocks of buildings constructed at the turn of the century, from the infamous storm of 1933 to the overwhelming growth of the 1940s, Ocean City has had a rich and vibrant history. This volume offers a historical perspective of Ocean City from its inception to 1946, a period when growth was steady but slow. Now boasting over eight million visitors annually, the area is Maryland's golden-haired child and its second-largest city during peak summer weekends when an average of 300,000 tourists arrive.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Sep 18, 2012
• ISBN: 9781439626900

Ph.D., Nan DeVincent-Hayes

Authors Nan DeVincent-Hayes, Ph.D., and John E. Jacob have gathered vivid images from wonderful personal collections throughout the community for this volume, and each image provides a historical glimpse of a past that has quickly faded. This entertaining and educational retrospective will certainly delight longtime residents as well as summer sun-seekers.

Book preview

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INTRODUCTION

Two phrases that best characterize Ocean City are family oriented and family owned. This post-Civil War resort presently has no casino gambling or slot machines. Many of its businesses are mom and pop operations that have been passed down from ancestors.

Ocean City is a barrier island, meaning that it serves as a wall to the mainland—the Delmarva Peninsula—and thus protects it. This island once ran from Delaware’s Indian River Inlet to Tom’s Cove, Virginia (abut 60 miles long), but after the wicked 1933 storm, which eroded the land to form a waterway, Ocean City’s land basin ended at what is now called the Inlet. This hot-spot vacation center, which has accommodated many celebrities and noted politicians, houses over 7,000 permanent residents, many of whom are offspring of original settlers. The resort is Maryland’s golden-haired child because it boasts over eight million visitors annually. During peak seasons, it’s the state’s second largest city with an average 300,000 tourists each weekend, filling nearly the width of its five blocks and the length of its 10 miles.

Accessing the beach in high months is frustrating since there are only three roads leading in and out of town. Condos and high-rise structures saturate Ocean City’s northern region, while the southern end advances the boardwalk, shops, and the inlet. Hundreds and hundreds of rental properties, hotels, motels, camps, mobile home parks, restaurants, businesses, shops, amusements, and real estate companies steep the resort, though it doesn’t have a hospital, school, or cemetery. The closest large city is Salisbury, Maryland, which serves as the Eastern Shore’s hub.

A planned resort, Ocean City’s original ownership came under Lord Baltimore. Before his proprietorship, the land was inhabited by the Algonquian tribe, consisting of the Pocomoke, Nanticoke, Assateague, and Chincoteague Indians, although some discrepancies exist as to which Native Americans really populated the area. Giovanni da Verrazzano is credited with ‘discovering’ the land, but recognition goes to Capt. William Whittington for acquiring from Lord Baltimore the patent for 1,000 acres in 1771. In 1872, a group of five men, having formed the Atlantic Hotel Company Corporation, approached the then owner of the island, Stephen Taber, to buy 10 acres to build a lodging facility, which came to be known as the Atlantic Hotel. Through the selling of lots valued at $25 each, Ocean City began to take root as a coastal resort, with the help of the railroad that ran from Salisbury to the bay. July 4, 1875, is struck as the town’s official founding date.

Ocean City has changed since its inception, but much of its philosophy—family ownership, clean beaches, and fine hospitality—has remained. The city’s early slow growth had been attributed to a lack of accessibility, but, over time, transportation improved, the boardwalk was built and expanded, and the city’s limits stretched beyond the original 10 acres. Human ingenuity germinated greater creature comforts, sprouting boardinghouses, cottages, hotels, motels, amusements, dining and dancing, and a host of other tourist-oriented activities and businesses. Post-war booms and the building of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge brought hordes to the vacation spot. Property values escalated, then increased again, and again. The original investors and their descendants in Ocean City have made profits thousands of times over.

From cattle grazing in the mid-1800s to a few blocks of buildings at the turn of the century, from the construction of better transportation systems in the 1920s to the infamous fire, 1933 storm, and whopping growth in the 1940s, the city has been a resort to contend with. The 1950s saw the laying of new streets and the widening of old ones, the fashioning of an airport, and the beginning of deep-sea fishing. The 1960s brought population and real estate surges, land annexations, new and improved infrastructures, trailer parks, destruction from another storm, and the creation of such organizations as life saving and beach patrols. The 1970s witnessed the largest expansion, with the inception of the Ocean City Life Saving Museum and the headlining of condominium row. The 1980s brought clamming, luxury townhouses, and re-zoning policies for a small town that now laid claim to being one of the densest resorts in the country. The resort in the 1990s saw improvements and refinements as well as the razing of some of the old buildings and the development of many of the new. The millennium will behold a $3.5 million boardwalk renovation and